The shop has been downtown at 85 Daniel St. for 16 years on Aug. 15. But it has outgrown its space in terms of customer demand, plant volume and limited available parking.

Cady will open Thursday, Aug. 1, at 933 U.S. Route 1 Bypass, doubling her space while lowering her rent.

"My rent doubled over the past year," she said. "Even though I have all this new space, the rent will be less."

While her old shop had 600 square feet of prime space in the city's downtown, the new shop has 1,188 square feet. She also has an additional 800 square feet of warehouse space in a separate building in the rear of the store, and her own loading dock.

The new space boasts a large showroom, a plant department, sales area and an office. Cady, a Portsmouth resident, is thrilled to have the building to herself.

"There's no one next to me or on top of me," she said of the freestanding building that once housed Zenstoneworks, which relocated to Islington Street.

In fact, there came an added bonus of stone tiles with different patterns set into the wooden floor of the new showroom.

Cady, who has four part-time employees, is also thrilled with the walls of windows, including a double-door entrance and only one step up from the ample parking lot.

"My old store had three steps and it was so hard to maneuver elderly people into the shop who came for funeral arrangements," Cady said.

The warehouse space will allow Cady and her staff space to create larger arrangements such as the bridge of 300 cupcakes she is making for an upcoming event at the Children's Museum in Dover.

One of the first things Cady put into her new shop was a giant sock monkey.

"He's our new mascot," she said.

Cady grew up in Hudson and got her first job at age 17 at Anne's Country Florals shop, also in Hudson. Self-taught, she is a wizard at creating arrangements for weddings, funerals, parties and other occasions.

She is currently working on terrarium arrangements with succulent plants for a wedding to be held at the Epi Center in Boston.

In fact, Cady travels to Boston three days a week to the Boston Flower Exchange to keep her inventory fresh.

"They open at 5 a.m., so some days I'm working from 3:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.," she said.

She is also thrilled with her new location's easy and quick access to the highway.

"Portsmouth is such a destination place for weddings," she said. "It will be so much easier to load things up and get around from here."

Some of Cady's local customers include Ristorante Massimo, Mombo's, the Sheraton Harborside Portsmouth and Portsmouth Regional Hospital.

"Now, I'll be going the other way into town for some deliveries," she said. "So, I'll be the one circling around looking for parking."

While there is no looking back on the move, Cady said she will miss the convenience of popping over to Moe's Italian Sandwiches for something to eat, getting the Caesar salad special at Ceres Street Bakery, and the occasional cupcake from Random Acts of Sweetness on State Street.

Each morning, Cady strews rose petals outside her Daniel Street shop and she has already brought the tradition to her new location.

"We'll be having a three-day open house soon to celebrate," she said.

At a glance

Ambrosia Gardens

Owner: Kim Cady

Address: 933 U.S. Route 1 Bypass, Portsmouth (as of Thursday, Aug. 1)

Phone: 436-7000

Web: www.ambrosiagardens.com

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